Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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He always wakes up with his heart pounding out of his chest in the middle of the night, when he has the dreams, and loathes his father more than anything when he does. He only recalls a flash of midnight blue eyes; perfectly arched lips that could tilt into a disrespectful grin; unblemished pale hands that touched, touched, touched.
But at least he remembers on those days, even if the dreams fade. All Arthur is left with is this crushing sense of loss and the cursive glances of the court; they all whisper of the prince who loved a sorcerer so much that the king resorted to magic to make him forget. The heresy. The hypocrisy. The burning shame; Arthur is the one who can still meet his father’s gaze and his father is the one who drops his own.
This is not the king that Arthur will be.
Series
- Part 1 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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Merlin ducks forward, grabbing Arthur’s hands. His are cool and soft, and Arthur is surprised by the feel of Merlin’s palm over his own rough knuckles. “Arthur,” he says pointedly. “I know my duty, and I don’t need you to remind me. Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Annoying,” Merlin says, and leans back, appraising him more thoughtfully than his tone suggests. “So concerned with your honour.”
Or: Arthur must marry Lord Emrys for a year to create an alliance between their people. Except it isn't Emrys who comes to marry him, but the young druid Merlin, who soon turns all of Camelot upside down—and Arthur with it.
Series
- Part 2 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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When Arthur drunkenly kisses a stranger at a party, he doesn’t expect to ever really see him again.
That is, until two years later, when he accidentally likes a picture on Instagram and somehow starts an online rivalry with him.
Or: In which Arthur is a bit of a prat (and, worse: a prescriptivist), Merlin has no issues at all calling him out on it, Morgana is the world's least-sympathetic sister, and Uther is no help whatsoever.
Series
- Part 3 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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It’s not that Lancelot thinks he’s entitled to anything. It’s not even that it burns to watch the two people he loves most revolve around a man he highly respects. Truly, it has nothing to do with either him or Arthur, he considers, watching Merlin quietly clean the knights’ swords by the light of the moon.
It’s just that he thinks Merlin deserves better, sometimes.
Series
- Part 4 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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“So, Merlin,” Arthur says, and leans forward. Despite having climbed a tower that’s taller than the Big Ben, he doesn’t have a lock of hair out of place. Merlin despises him for that, a little bit. “What are you currently doing in a tower that seems to have no entrance and does have a large dragon on top, which really, that doesn’t help with being perceived as a princess, you’re aware?”
“How did you get past Kilgharrah?” Merlin wonders.
“Dragons sleep too, Merlin.”
Or: Merlin has stuck himself in a tower in a desperate attempt to make himself focus on his dissertation. A lot of knights seem to be under the impression that this makes him a princess in need of rescue, but fail to climb all the way up—that is, until Arthur.
Series
- Part 5 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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Merlin will never be entirely able to explain his thoughts and actions of that day, but he will remember standing there; Gwen in his arms, his lips still tingling with her kiss, and only the hungry beast of desire left in his mind—that he wants her, and he ought to want her, and she belongs to him—
And then Arthur stares him in the face, steel in his hand and betrayal in his eyes, and the fog clears.
And Merlin has no idea what he’s just done.
Or: Instead of Lancelot, Morgana enchants Merlin and Gwen to betray Arthur together on the eve of their wedding.
Series
- Part 6 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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“I don’t want him as my soulmate,” Arthur complains. “He was rude, and he’s magic, and he’s old and quite frankly, I think he’s insane and—”
“And he’s not Merlin?” Morgana asks, crossing her arms.
“Shut up, Morgana,” Arthur says heatedly, feeling the flush settle awkwardly in his cheeks. “Merlin isn’t my soulmate, so there’s clearly something severely wrong with him, and I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.”
Or: It turns out that Arthur's soulmate Emrys is a dodgery old sorcerer. No one is happy about this, least of all Arthur, who has to come to terms with the facts that he's bound to someone with magic and that his inconvenient attraction to Merlin won't lead to anything at all.
So he thinks, anyway.
Series
- Part 7 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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“I think he’s awake,” Arthur calls out, and the noise bludgeons Merlin’s head like a hammer, and he presses his eyes closed as if to force away his ability to hear as much as his ability to see. It doesn’t work well for him, and he chokes on a breath. His throat is on fire as he starts coughing.
Gods, he’s ill. He thinks he’s very ill.
Series
- Part 8 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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“We have a system for borrowing books, you know,” the librarian says. Merlin, his name tag reads. There’s a little smiley face behind his name, and Merlin leans over the counter to take the book out of Arthur’s hands. Arthur stares back, stone-faced, as Merlin looks at the cover. “I hope you enjoyed it, at least, if you went to all the trouble of stealing it.”
“I don’t—” Arthur says, and presses his lips together. “It was fine, I suppose. If you like that sort of thing.”
Merlin snorts. “What’s that, gay people?”
Or: When Arthur comes out to his father, he loses everything. And then he meets a messy-haired librarian, and learns that there’s so much he never had.
Series
- Part 9 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023
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“I lost him,” Merlin says quietly, and bows his head as the tears prickle annoyingly at his lashes. One of them drops into his stew; it ripples for a moment, and he stares at the dish. He isn’t hungry, really.
“He would have wanted for you to be happy,” Gaius says, his voice kind and low. Merlin feels as though he’s a wounded animal, hiding away in the corner and shying away from all hands that want to help him—he can’t be helped. Lancelot was his friend, and Merlin couldn’t lose him, but he did.
Or: Lancelot walks through the veil and towards his death. So everyone thinks, at least, until Merlin finds him trapped in the world between life and death. And there's very little Merlin won't do to get him back.
Series
- Part 10 of Liz's Merlin Bingo 2023